Double-acting engine



27, 1940. R. LANDOLT 2,212,665

I DOUBLE-ACTING ENGINE Filed Nov. 15, 1958 INVENTOR /?0 doZ,v77e Zandolz BY MDMTYWYMWM ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 27, 1940 UNITED STATESDOUBLE-ACTING ENGINE Rodolphe Landolt, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor toSulzer Freres, Socit Anonyme, Wintertliur,

Switzerland Application November 15, 1938,- Serial No; 240550 .InSwitzerland November 15, 1937 1 j 1 Claim, (01'. 121 -1) This inventionrelates to double-acting engines of the type in which the piston ismounted upon a guided piston rod and has for its object the provision ofcertain improvements in engines of that character. The invention aims toprovide means to compensate for the unequal expansion of different sidesof the engine cylinder to keep the cylinder axis rectilinear when theengine is in operation, and particularly to correct. the

unequal expansion of the cylinder caused by the flow of relatively hightemperature gas or steam plicable to various kinds of doub1e-actingengines,

for example, steam, gas, or Diesel engines.

In the accompanying drawingx Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view ofa double-acting steam-engine embodying the in- Vention;

Fig. 2 is a. fragmentary view of the apparatus of Fig. 1diagrammatically illustrating the movement of the cylinderaxis; I t Fig.3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a double-acting engine with avalve arrangement em bodying the invention.

In the double-acting steam-engine illustrated in Fig. 1, the connectingrod I is coupled to the drive crank.2, the cross head 3 and the pistonrod 4 in the usual way. The piston rod 4 carries the piston 5 andisguided by the'slides 6 at the rear end of the engineand the cross head3. The inlet valves are designated by l and 8, the outlet valves by 9and all], the steam inlet ports by H and I2, and the steam outlet portsby [3 and I4. The cylinder l5is suitably connected as by bolts (notshown) to the flange I6 of the engine frame.

In the arrangement of valves of Fig. 1 the high temperature steamorsuper-heated steam is admitted to one side of the cylinder through thevalves 1 and 8 and relatively lower temperature steam is discharged fromthe cylinder through the'exhaust valves 9 and ID. This causes that sideof the cylinder adjacent the inlet valves to be considerably hotter thanthe side adjacent the exhaust valves and the cylinder to assume a bentform due to the unequal expansion or deformation of the differentlyheated sides. This unequal heating with the resulting bending of the,

cylinder is diagrammatically illustrated on an I exaggerated scale inFig. 2. When the cylinder 0 is cold, its axis is represented by thehorizontal or longitudinal axis l 1. When the walls of the cylin der 55are unequally heated,.the rear edge 20 becomes inclined to the verticalas measuredby angle a. Agiven point on the axis [1, for example,

'a point on the slide 6, will move downwardly after the cylinder hasbeen unequally heated through the distance 12 to point 18', a point on asloped line l9, which becomes the bent cylinder axis. The longitudinalcenter of the piston 20 5 is accordingly displaced from the axis ll tothe axis l9 by an amount m. This causes the piston rings, due to'thebent path of the piston, to travel up and down in their grooves. Thus,the chambers formed in the, cylinder on each side of the piston are eachprovided with an inlet and an outlet valve positioned opposite oneanother -and so disposed in these chambersthat the inlet valves of thetwo chambers are on substantially opposite sides of the cylinder axisand. 0 that the exhaust valves'of the two chambers are on substantiallyopposite sides of the cylinder axis. Accordingly, steam or gas entersthe two chambers on opposite sides of the cylinder axis in the twoseparate chambers and leaves these chambers on oppositesides of thisaxis, respectively.

I claim: v

A double-acting internal combustion or steam engine which comprises acylinder, a piston 40 adapted to move along the axis of the cylinder andto divide the cylinder into two chambers, and

an inlet valve and an exhaust valve positioned. opposite vone another ineach chamber, the inlet and exhaust valves being so disposed in saidcham- 45 bers that the inlet. valves of the two chambers are onsubstantially opposite sides, of the'cylinder axis and thatthe exhaustvalves of the two chambers are on substantially opposite sidesof thecylinder axis. RODOLPI-IE LANDOL'I'.

PATENT mm...

